Process for production of ground fish meat products or their analogues

ABSTRACT

Herein are discolsed a process for production of ground fish meat products or their analogues, using, as the main raw material, non-salt ground fish meat along with a gel of glucomannan hydrate, or a gel of glucomannan hydrate only, and another process for production of ground fish meat products or their analogues, using, as the main raw material, non-salt, well-ground fish meat only, or non-salt, well-ground fish meat and a gel of glucomannan, salt-grinding not being involved in both the processes, and these fish meat products or their analogues being new and different in taste or texture from prior art ground fish meat products like Japanese kamaboko, and also being optionally lowered in calories with the use of an increased proportion of such gel of glucomannan hydrate.

This application is a Continuation of application Ser. No. 08/808,440filed on Feb. 28, 1997 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,939,129.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a process for production of ground fishmeat products or thier analogues, and more particularly, first, to aprocess for production of ground fish meat products or their analogues,which comprises using, as the main raw material, non-salt ground fishmeat, instead of the conventional salt ground fish meat, along with agel of glucomannan hydrate, or a gel of glucomannan hydrate alone, andsecond, to a process for production of ground fish meat products ortheir analogues, which comprises using, the main raw material, non-salt,well-ground fish meat only, or non-salt, well-ground fish meat and a gelof glucomannan hydrate.

2. Description of Prior Art

Briefly, prior-art processes for production of ground fish meat productssuch as Japanese kamaboko comprise grinding fish meat with salt (i.e.,sodium chloride) added thereto (i.e., salt-grinding) to make viscouspaste, and molding and heating said paste into an elastic gel.

In greater details, in order to obtain elasticity, a certain physicaltaste (texture), for such-products, salt (e.g., ca 3% based on thestarting fish meat) is added generally in three portions to saidstarting fish meat, and the mass is mixed and ground, whereby viscousground fish meat is obtained wherein myofibrils of fish protein aremechanically disrupted and mixed, then said viscous ground fish meat isshaped into the shape of a desired product and subjected to suwari(i.e., setting), and, finally, the shaped material is heated so that thecenter of the material should be, for example, about 75° C., to give ahydrogel retaining water (i.e., prior-art ground fish meat product).

All of thus produced, prior-art ground fish meat products such asJapanese kamaboko, Japanese chikuwa, Japanese satsumaage, fish ham orsausage, as well as Japanese narutomaki, Japanese datemaki, Japanesehampen, Japanese shinjo and the like exhibit their own particulargel-like textures, though saltground fish meat as the main raw materialis common to all these products, since they are produced through theirrespective particular manufacturing steps, including their own auxiliaryraw materials.

However, salt-grinding (i.e., grinding something such as fish meattogether with salt, or grinding something with salt being addedthereto), which is an essential step for treating the starting fishmeat, limits various prior-art ground fish meat products in taste towithin a certain range of similar kamaboko-like taste. For example,salt-grinding prevents kamaboko-type products from their use instead ofanimal meat for western dishes, for example, ingredients in curry.

In addition, in order to increase quantity or to control calorie (i.e.,to reduce calorie), of ground fish meat products, various processes havebeen proposed and discussed, for example, a process wherein purifiedkonnyaku powder, the main raw material for making konjak jelly (i.e.,Japanese traditional food konnyaku), is, after hydrated/swollen andadded/mixed with a coagulating agent, added to other raw materials, or aprocess which comprises blending vegetable gum, carrageenan, etc., withother raw materials. However, such processes fail to provide ground fishmeat products with favorable texture peculiar to kamaboko, thus they areinsufficient to attain their objects. Accordingly, the problems have notbeen solved yet.

3. Problems to be Solved by the Invention

Up to now, fish meat (including so-called Japanese frozen surimi, i.e.,a kind of frozen fish meat paste), which is a common raw material forground fish meat products, is subjected to salt-grinding, which is anessential step to obtain gels having their own texture peculiar to therespective final ground fish meat products, and the thus obtainedviscous ground fish meat is made into the final products through theirrespective particular manufacturing steps. Accordingly, peculiar tasteor texture of the conventional ground fish meat products essentiallyresembles that of kamaboko, which prevents them from their diversifiedapplications for food.

The present inventor has paid attention to such facts, and an object ofthe present invention is to provide processes for production of groundfish meat products or their analogues having such gel-like texture asprior-art ground fish meat products, even without salt-grinding of thestarting fish meat (i.e., without using salt-ground fish meat at all),salt-grinding being an essential step in conventional processes forproduction of ground fish meat products.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present inventor has studied intensively to attain the aboveobjects. As the results, he has found that ground fish meat products ortheir analogues, produced using fish meat ground without salt (i.e.,non-salt ground fish meat) and a gel of glucomannan hydrate, or a gel ofglucomannan hydrate only, retain texture resembling or superior to thatof the conventional gel products such as kamaboko, even withoutsalt-grinding of fish meat which has been considered to be an essentialstep. A first embodiment of the present invention has been attainedbased on such findings, and it relates to a process for production ofground fish meat products or their analogues, which comprises using, asthe main raw material, non-salt ground fish meat along with a gel ofglucomannan hydrate, or a gel of glucomannan hydrate only.

The present inventor has further studied and, as the results, found thatnon-salt ground fish meat when ground well (i.e., non-salt, well-groundfish meat) gives ground fish meat products having similar texture, andthat a gel of glucomannan hydrate may be used together with suchnon-salt, well-ground fish meat. Thus, a second embodiment of thepresent invention relates to a process for production of ground fishmeat products or their analogues, which comprises using, as the main rawmaterial, non-salt, well-ground fish meat only, or non-salt, well-groundfish meat and a gel of glucomannan hydrate.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

First, the first embodiment of the present invention will be described.

Gel of glucomannan hydrate will be first explained, which has been newlyemployed in accordance with the present invention as one of the main rawmaterials or the main raw material for ground fish meat products ortheir analogues.

Konjak-imo, which is a plant belonging to the taro family, contains alarge amount of polysaccharides, glucomannan (narrow sense) and othermannans, in its bulb. They are collectively referred to as glucomannan(broad sense), and also called as konnyaku-mannan (purified konnyakpowder), because of its use as the main raw material for makingcommercially available konjak jelly, a Japanese traditional foodkonnyaku. Glucomannan to be used in the process of the present inventionis not always required to be pure (glucomannan in the narrow sense) andkonnyaku-mannan (a glucomannan in the broad sense) can be of courseused. Accordingly, in the following description, glucomannans both inthe narrow and the broad sense are collectively abbreviated simply to"mannan" unless it is particularly necessary to distinguish.

As is well known, an aqueous solution of mannan is gelled upon contactwith an alkaline compound such as Ca(OH)₂ (a coagulating agent), and theresulting hydrated gel (i.e., a gel of mannan hydrate), when warmed orheated, gives an irreversible elastic gel, which is a Japanesetraditional food konnyaku. More particularly, konnyaku is, for example,produced via a series of essential steps which comprises stirring mannanwith water, leaving the mass for about 60 to 120 minutes to completelydissolve the mannan particles (mebiraki i.e., swelling of particles),subsequently adding a coagulating agent to the swollen mannan,completely blending the mixture to obtain a gel of mannan hydrate,thereafter molding the gel, and heating the molded gel to obtain anirreversible gel.

The characteristics of mannan have been utilized for food, for example,as konnyaku.

According to such process for production of konnyaku (i.e., konjakjelly), a large amount of water should be used upon preparation of anaqueous solution of mannan in order to completely dissolve mannan or tocompletely blend after addition of a coagulating agent. That is, it ispreferable for such purposes to use 37 to 45 parts by weight of waterbased on 1 part by weight of mannan. For example, when water is used inan amount of less than 30 parts by weight, a strong hydrate gel results,which can hardly be blended completely upon addition of an alkalineagent (a coagulating agent) after swelling, and which can hardly behomogenized upon addition to other foodstuff.

However, to impart favorable texture to the ground f4ish meat productsand their analogues of the present invention, according to the findings.of the present inventor, a gel of mannan hydrate is composed of about 8to 25, preferably about 12 to 22 parts by weight of water, per 1 part byweight of mannan, and 0.02 to 0.05 parts by weight of a coagulatingagent in the case of Ca(OH)₂, per 1 part by weight of mannan. Acomposition within the above-mentioned ranges provides a good gel forthe purposes of the present invention. In this connection, a preferredexample of manaan, which can be used to give such a good gel of mannanhydrate without such steps of completely dissolving mannan in water andsubsequent thoroughly blending with a coagulating agent as necessary inthe production of konnyaku, includes mannan in the form of instantlysoluble glucomannan according to the invention by the present inventor(Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 38263/1993).

Mannan to be used in the process of the present invention is preferablyin the form of powder and of course should be so purified as not toimpart uncomfortable taste or odor to the products.

Further, fish meat to be ground without using salt (i.e., with no saltbeing added thereto) includes of course a kind of (frozen) fish meatpaste (i.e., so-called Japanese (frozen) surimi).

The process for production of ground fish meat products and theiranalogues according to the present invention can be conducted accordingto conventionally known processes, including auxiliary materials, forproduction of ground fish meat products, except that as the main rawmaterial is used fish meat ground without using salt (i.e., non-saltground fish meat) along with mannan hydrate gel, or mannan hydrate gelalone. They can be produced using absolutely no auxiliary materials.Thus, diversified application of such kind of foodstuff for food can beattained.

Formerly, it is well known that kamaboko is, for example, produced fromfish meat (paste) ground with salt (i.e., salt-ground fish meat) as themain raw material by blending it with auxiliary raw materials, e.g.,seasonings such as sugar and umami-seasoning and elasticity reinforcingmaterial such as starch, molding the blended mass, and heating themolded mass. Production processes of ground fish meat products referredto above, other than kamaboko, such as chikuwa, are also well-known tothose skilled in the art.

Prior art processes for production of any ground fish meat productsinclude a heating step as an essential one. Such heating step can alsoserve as a heating step to convert a mannan hydrate gel (i.e., gel ofmannan hydrate) into an irreversible elastic gel.

When fish meat ground without using salt (i.e., non-salt ground fishmeat) and a gel of mannan hydrate are simultaneously used as the mainraw material, their ratio should be such that gel elasticity comparableto that of prior art ground fish meat products produced usingsalt-ground fish meat as the main raw metarial is imparted to the finalproducts according to the present invention. With increase of the ratioof a gel of mannan hydrate, the ratio of non-salt ground fish meat willbe reduced, which provides final products with less conventionalkamaboko-like taste, that is, the products become away from theso-called ground fish meat products in the prior art and become theiranalogues (i.e., analogues of ground fish meat products in the priorart). In the extreme case, such analogues can be produced without usingany non-salt ground fish meat, that is, by using a gel of mannan hydratealone as the main raw material. Thus, diversified application of suchkind of foodstuff has been attained.

Salt-ground fish meat may be used if in so small an amount as not tointerfere the advantage of the present invention. Salt may be used in asmall amount as a seasoning. Auxiliary raw materials may by previouslyadded optionally to ground fish meat and/or gel of mannan hydrate duringthe step of preparation thereof. As mentioned above, the inventiveproducts can be produced with absolutely no auxiliary raw materials atall.

Next, the second embodiment of the present invention, which relates, asmentioned above, to a process for production of ground fish meatproducts or their analogues, which comprises using, as the main rawmaterial, non-salt, well-ground fish meat only, or non-salt, well-groundfish meat and a gel of glucomannan hydrate.

As has been described above in connection with the first embodiment ofthe present invention, the present inventor has found that addition ofsalt in the step of grinding fish meat (including that in the form ofsurimi, i.e., a kind of fish meat paste) (salt-grinding), which has beenconventionally conducted as an essential step, can be eliminated byblending a gel of glucomannan hydrate with fish meat ground withoutusing salt (i.e., non-salt ground fish meat) to reinforce the gelstrength from said non-salt ground fish meat, whereby texture morefavorable than that of the gel of kamaboko can be provided, and hasattained a process for production of ground fish meat products and theiranalogues in accordance with the first embodiment of the presentinvention. After further intensive studies, the present inventor hasfound that non-salt ground fish meat, when obtained under certaingrinding conditions, can provide sufficient gel strength, even if notsupplemented with a gel of glucomannan hydrate, and has attained thesecond embodiment of the present invention based on such findings.

Conventional salt-grinding of fish meat is carried out by any one of theprocesses shown below:

(a) Grinding with a stone mill. This grinding is carried out using astone mill equipped with a few rotating rods, wherein such rotating rodssolwly rotate so that the contents in the mill should not be scatteredout, for example, over 30 minutes or longer.

(b) Grinding using a silent cutter. Such grinding is conducted using amixing-grinding machine called `silent cutter`, which cuts its contentssuch as fish meat with multiple metallic blades rotating longitudinallyat a high speed in a solwly rotating stone or metallic mill (depth, ca30 to 40 cm). Time required for grinding using such a silent cutter is,for example, not less than about 30 minutes.

(c) Grinding using a food cutter. It is, for example, carried out usinga cylindrical container having two (upper and lower) sharp rotatingblades (made of stainless steel) at the bottom of said container, theblades rapidly rotating (at 13,000 to 20,000 rpm) to cut the contents.Using this cutter, for example, cutting of meat for hamburger stake,etc. will be completed within about 20 seconds. In this case, thecapacity of the cutter is generally not more than 800 g. Even a cutterfor commercial use has a small capacity, i.e., not more than 2 kg.However, it is suitable to confirm physical properties of the articlesmade by way of trial.

(d) Grinding using a ball cutter. This comprises charging, for example,surimi (i.e., fish meat paste), and auxiliary materials and seasoningssuch as salt (about 3% by weight based on the surimi), a required amountof chilled water, starch and the like into a spherical tank made ofstainless steel, putting on the lid, making the inside vacuous, andcutting and grinding the contents by rotating multiple rotating bladesat a high speed of not less than 2,700 rpm for about 10 minutes. In thiscase, even if such vacuum state is changed to an open state, good groundfish meat of almost the same quality can be obtained by increasing arotation speed of the rotating blades.

All of such conventional methods essentially utilizes salt (normally, 3%by weight based on surimi) at the beginning of the step of grindingsurimi. In such grinding step (i.e., saltgrinding), the myosin portionof fish protein is disrupted by the osmotic pressure to give viscousground surimi, which is shaped, and heated to attain the characteristictexture. This is the conventional process for production of ground fishmeat products represented by kamaboko.

In the background of the above-described prior art, the present inventorhas found that even by non-salt grinding without using salt, ground fishmeat giving sufficient gel strength can be readily obtained, unlesssupplemented with a gel of glucomannan hydrate as in the firstembodiment of the present invention, by increasing cutting time in theabove food-cutter method (c), or by high-speed rotation of rotatingblades in the ball-cutter method (d). In this case, it may be vacuum oropened state in the ball tank. The important thing is, for example,high-speed cutting of not less than 2,700 rpm is preferable in the balltank, and the time required is, for example, about 10 minutes. To obtaineffects of high-speed rotation, fluid such as chilled water, egg white,Japanese mirin are used in an amount of about 60 to 80% by weight basedon the ground surimi. If no salt content derived from seasonings isdesired, seasonings containing salt should be appropriately eliminated.For example, as for mirin, it may be replaced with chilled water.

On the other hand, in the case of the grinding method of (a) or (b)above, it is difficult to obtain a sufficiently viscous ground productof fish meat paste (i.e., so-called surimi) resultant from disruption ofthe myosin portion upon non-salt grinding, the product retaining dry andcrumbling, lumpy texture with less bonding ability.

Judgment on whether or not a non-salt ground fish meat is to besupplemented in gel strength, can be made, as follows. For example, asfor kamaboko, it can be given on the basis of whether particles presentin surimi are disrupted in the resultant non-salt ground fish meat andthe said resultant non-salt ground fish meat exhibits homogeneous andviscous properties and moldability and workability almost equal orsuperior to those of the conventional salt-ground fish meat paste (i.e.,surimi). That is, it can be made based on whether the resultant kamabokoshows such properties as ashi (i.e., elasticity) which is texturecharacteristic of prior art kamaboko, or elastic properties. As forchikuwa, it can be made based on possibility of molding by winding usinga chikuwa-producing machine. That is, a non-salt ground fish meat shouldbe so viscous that the ground fish meat may not be scattered, otherwiseit fails to be wound around the rotating shaft which rotates to mold theground fish meat. And as for satsuma-age, it can be made on whethertexture become rough and heterogeneous, and further hard and brittleupon frying non-salt ground fish meat, and on whether time required forfrying is long or not. That is, if grinding of fish meat isinsufficient, workability is insufficient, and further the resultingground fish meat products fail to have high-quality of fine texture.Non-salt ground fish meat which has been ground so well that it does notparticularly require supplement of gel strength is defined as "non-salt,well-ground fish meat" according to the present invention, regardless ofits preparation processes.

The findings by the present inventor that even non-salt grinding withoutusing salt can afford ground fish meat giving sufficient gel strength isextremely useful from the practical view point of the actual productionof ground fish meat products, of the diversification of taste of groundfish meat products and of satisfying the demand to reduce salt contentin food based on the health-oriented tendency. Further, it is extremelyimportant from the scientific viewpoint. Formerly, actomyosin, which canbe extracted from muscle with neutral saline of high concentration, cannot be dissolved in water but in saline and has high viscosity. Sausage,kamaboko and the like are considered to result from coagulation andgelation upon heat treatment of thick actomyosin sol derived from fishmeat completely mixed and ground with salt, and the elasticitycharacteristic of kamaboko is considered to be derived from formation ofthree dimensional net structure of actomyosin upon heat treatment (see"Shokuhin Kogyo Sogo Jiten", edited by Nippon Shokuhin Kogyo Gakkai, andpublished by Korin Kabushiki Kaisha in 1979, item "actomyosin").Accordingly, it has been considered that production of ground fish meatproducts such as kamaboko.essentially require salt-grinding of thestarting raw material fish meat (paste) (see the above "Jiten", item"kamaboko"). That is, ground fish meat (paste) good for ground fish meatproducts has been considered to be obtained only by salt-grindingwherein osmotic pressure of salt works. However, the present inventorhas found that non-salt ground fish meat alone can be used.

Accordingly, the second embodiment of the present invention relates to aprocess for production of ground fish meat products or their analogues,which comprises using, as the main raw material, non-salt, well-groundfish meat only, or non-salt, well-ground fish meat and a gel ofglucomannan hydrate.

The second embodiment of the present invention per se will beillustrated in detail. This embodiment is the same as the firstembodiment of the present invention except that non-salt ground fishmeat is replaced by non-salt, well-ground fish meat, as will becomeapparent from the following.

Firstly, the main raw material, i.e., non-salt, well-ground fish meatwill be explained.

Use of non-salt, well-ground fish meat provides deversification of tasteof ground fish meat products, thereby satisfying the diversified publictaste as well as demand for reducing salt consumption based on thehealth-oriented tendency.

The definition of non-salt, well-ground fish meat has been given above.Its production method has also been described above, i.e., it can beaccording to that of conventional salt-grinding except fish meat is wellground without using salt to such extent that the sufficient gelstrength is provided. Of course, fish meat to be ground without additionof salt includes so-called surimi (i.e., a kind of fish meat paste).

Secondary, a gel of glucomannan hydrate, which can be used along withnon-salt, well-ground fish meat as a main raw material, is the same asexplained above in connection with the first embodiment of the presentinvention.

The process for production of ground fish meat products and theiranalogues according to the second embodiment of the present inventioncan, as in the case of the first embodiment of the present invention, beconducted according to conventionally known processes, includingauxiliary materials, for production of ground fish meat products exceptthat as the main raw material is used only fish meat well ground withoutusing salt (i.e., non-salt, well-ground fish meat), or non-salt,well-ground fish meat along with a gel of glucomannan hydrate. They canbe produced using absolutely no auxiliary materials. Thus, diversifiedapplication of such kind of foodstuff for food can be attained, as inthe first embodiment of the present invention.

Conventionally known processes for production of ground fish meatproducts have been described above in connection with the firstembodiment of the present invention.

As has been described above in connection with the first embodiment ofthe present invention, prior art processes for production of any groundfish meat products include a heating step as an essential one. Suchheating step can also serve as a heating step to convert a mannanhydrate gel into an irreversible elastic gel.

When fish meat ground well without using salt (i.e., non-salt,well-ground fish meat) and a gel of mannan hydrate are simultaneouslyused as the main raw material, their ratio should be such that gelelasticity comparable to that of prior art ground fish meat productsproduced using salt-ground fish meat as the main raw material isimparted to the final products according to the present invention. Withincrease of the ratio of a gel of mannan hydrate, the ratio of non-salt,well-ground fish meat will be reduced, which provides final productswith less conventional kamaboko-like taste, that is, the products becomeaway from the so-called ground fish meat products in the prior art andbecome their analogues. In the extreme case, such analogues can beproduced without using any non-salt, well-ground fish meat, that is, byusing a gel of mannan hydrate alone as the main raw material. Thisaspect is, as has been described above, included in the first embodimentof the present invention.

As in the case of the first embodiment of the present invention,salt-ground fish meat may be used if in so small an amount as not tointerfere the advantage of the present invention. Salt may be used in asmall amount as a seasoning. Auxiliary raw materials may be previouslyadded optionally to ground fish meat and/or a gel of mannan hydrateduring the step of preparation thereof. As mentioned above, theinventive products can be produced with absolutely no auxiliarymaterials at all. These are all the same with the first embodiment ofthe present invention.

EXAMPLES

The present invention will be further illustrated by the followingexamples.

Example 1

(Case of larger ratio of ground fish meat):

Frozen fish meat paste (i.e., surimi) was cut into chips. 100 g of thechips, 8 g of suger, 1 g of sodium glutamate and 1 g of salt (110 g intotal) were, while 60 g of ice water being poured, ground together in afood cutter to obtain ground fish meat.

Separately, 20 g of an instantly soluble glucomannan compositionconsisting of 18 g of an about 200 mesh-through fine mannan powder, 1.6g of carrageenan and 0.4 g of guar gum, 14 g of starch, 1 g of curdlanand 0.5 g of Ca(OH)₂ (35.5 g in total) were, after added with 420 g ofwater (20° C.), mixed with a hand mixer for about 4 minutes, when theglucomannan hydrate went in gelation so far that the hand mixer couldnot hardly rotate. Then, the resulting mass was press-kneaded for about30-60 seconds to get the air bubbles out from within the mass, whereby agel of glucomannan hydrate was prepared.

30 g of the thus prepared gel of glucomannan was added to 100 g of theseparately prepared ground fish meat, and the mixture was brought intoan equilibrated state by grinding with a silent cutter for about 5minutes.

The ground mass was then press-spread to a thickness of about 7-10 mm,on a plate, and cut to rectangles of 50 mm×100 mm. Each rectangularpiece was manually press-rolled between rollers to a thickness of about2 mm, to give a strip of 80 mm in width and 220 mm in length. Each stripwas cut to pieces about 40 mm wide and about 70 mm long. They were putin hot water (95° C.) and kept therein for about 20 minutes. Then, theywere taken out onto a wire netting, whereby they got cooled down andtheir surface water was vaporized.

The thus prepared product was a peculiar gel entangled with fishmeat-based and glucomannan-based materials, nonuniformly rugged, andwrinkled, which gave a good texture. Compared with kamaboko produced bythe conventional process, it was hard to chew, different in peculiarflavour, easy to season, very compatible with various sauces andseasonings, and good as food material either cooked or noncooked.

Example 2

(Case of larger ratio of gel of glucomannan hydrate):

30 g of ground fish meat prepared in the same way as in Example 1 wasadded to water in the same amount (i.e., 420 g) as used to prepare a gelof glucomannan hydrate in that Example, and dispersed well enoughtherein by mixing with a hand mixer.

To the aqueous dispersion were added the same mixed raw materials exceptfor water as used to prepare the gel of glucomannan hydrate inExample 1. The mixture was then mixed for about 4 minutes, andpress-kneaded for about 30-60 seconds to get out the air bubbles,whereby a paste-like mass was obtained.

The paste-like mass was divided into 4 portions. Each portion was packedinto a laminated resin bag, each packed bag weighing about 120 g. Thepacked bags were put in hot water (95° C.) and kept therein for about 40minutes, whereby gelation was completed.

The thus prepared product was kamaboko-like in appearance but soft tomasticate, different from kamaboko, had a texture like slices of rawtuna or yellowtail (i.e., Japanese tuna or yellowtail sashimi), gave agood texture, when cooked, like a high quality beef. It was also quitedifferent in taste from kamaboko, compatible with various sauces andseasonings and good as food materials either cooked or noncooked, justlike the product of Example 1.

Example 3

(Non-salted chikuwa):

Frozen fish meat paste (i.e., frozen surimi) (3 kg), ice water (2.2 kg),egg white (50 g), starch (250 g) and glucose (40 g) were respectivelyweighed (5.54 kg, in total).

Firstly, the frozen surimi (3 kg) was cut into chips of about 20 mm,which were further cut in a ball cutter (cutter for 10 kg prototype,manufactured by Stephen Corp.) with ice water (1,000 kg) at a high speed(3,600 rpm) for 3 minutes. Subsequently, ice water (600 g) and the eggwhite (50 g) were added and cut at the same high speed for 3 minutes,then the starch (250 g) and glucose (40 g) dissolved in the remainingice water (600 g) were added and further cut for 4 minutes to obtainviscous ground surimi.

Time required for grinding in the ball cutter in the above operation wasabout 10 minutes, and the total time was about 15 minutes.

Subsequently, the resulting non-salt, well-ground fish meat wasautomatically molded around the winding rod of a chikuwa producingmachine and grilled to be lightly browned while rotating, providingchikuwa of 100 mm in length, 25 mm in outer diameter and 5 mm inthickness. In this way, 148 pieces of chikuwa (about 35 g, each) wereobtained.

Example 4

(Non-salted satsuma-age):

Ground surimi produced in the same manner as in Example 3 was molded inmolds for satsuma-age (50 mm×80 mm×10 mm) and fried in a vegetable oilat 150 to 160° C. for 4.5 minutes.

In this way, 85 pieces of satsuma-age were produced. The weight of asingle piece was about 60 g.

In this case, decrease of oil during frying was small, that is, theamount of oil absorbed by the satsuma-age product was small, which ispreferred from the viewpoint of reduction of calorie.

Example 5

(Chikuwa from non-salt, well-ground surimi along with glucomannanhydrate gel):

Glucomannan powder (19.5 g), waxy starch (10.5 g) and calcium hydroxide(0.5 g) were added to water (400 g) (20° C.) with stirring using a whiskand stirred for about 4 minutes to provide hydrate paste, which wasspread using a flexible resin spatula for about 1 minute and kneaded toprepare a highly viscous gel of glucomannan hydrate.

On the other hand, non-salt, well-ground surimi was prepared from thefollowing materials: surimi (240 g), ice water (120 g), raw egg white(50 g), potato starch (30 g) and mirin (30 g) (470 g, in total).Firstly, surimi was cut into chips of about 20 mm, then charged into afood cutter, to which was added the potato starch (30 g) dissolved inice water (120 g), and the resultant mixture was cut at a high speed(13,000 rpm) for 30 seconds. Subsequently, the raw egg white (50 g) andthe mirin (30 g) were charged and further cut for 30 seconds, then thecontents in the food cutter was integrated using a rubber spatula, then15-minute cutting was repeated twice to grind, preparing non-salt,well-ground surimi.

To the resultant mass, the said gel of the above mannan hydrate (about10 minutes after preparation) (50 g) was added, and cut for 30 secondsto provide materials in equilibrated state, which was then wound arounda stainless steel pipe (a winding rod) of the same chikuwa producingmachine as in Example 3 and grilled to produce 13 pieces of chikuwa (100mm in length, 25 mm in outer diameter, 5 mm in thickness, and about 38g, each).

The physical properties of the product were compared with those of thecommercially available chikuwa. As the result, both pliability andelasticity (texture) were equal to those of the commercial products.

Effects of the Invention:

According to the present invention, uniform kamaboko-like taste can beimproved by eliminating the salt-grinding step which has been anessential step for production of ground fish meat in the conventionalprocess for production of ground fish meat. Further, in an extreme case,analogues of prior art ground fish meat products, having taste andtexture different from those of the conventional ground fish meatproducts such as kamaboko can be obtained even without using auxiliarymaterials such as seasonings, by changing the ratio of fish meat typematerial to glucomannan-type material. Further, appropriate seasoningscan be added to the intermediate products before complete gelationaccording to the present invention depending on the object. Accordingly,the inventive products, which can be optionally molded, can be utilizednot only for Japanese dishes but for Western and Chinese dishes. Thatis, the present invention can contribute to advantageous utilization offish meat resources and is of great economical advantage.

Today, our eating habits are diversified and Western food is changingour national food culture. Ground fish meat products represented bykamaboko, which is one of the traditional Japanese foods, are producedby grinding fish meat (including surimi, or fish meat paste) using salt(generally 3% of the starting fish meat), which is used as the main rawmaterial. Seasonings have about 1.5% salt content. Accordingly, theproducts are salty. Such products are left behind the recent tendency torefrain from taking too much salt with the increase of health-orientedtendency. According to the present invention, non-salt grinding canprovide products with lower salt content and glucomannan can reducecalorie. Accordingly, utilization of ground fish meat paste products forfood can be diversified.

What is claimed is:
 1. A process for the production of a ground fish meat product, which comprises blending (1) non-salt, well-ground fish meat and, optionally, (2) a gel of mannan hydrate comprising 8-25 parts by weight water per 1 part by weight mannan with (3) other raw food materials, wherein said non-salt, well ground fish meat and, if present, said gel, are the main raw materials in said product, wherein said well-ground fish meat is prepared by grinding fish meat in the absence of salt until a gel strength sufficient for use in a food product without supplementation is obtained.
 2. The process as claimed in claim 1, wherein said well-ground fish meat is prepared in a food cutter or ball cutter.
 3. The process as claimed in claim 1, which comprises blending both said non-salt, well-ground fish meat and said gel of mannan hydrate with said other raw food materials. 